KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent -- Matt Besler emerged from the U.S. locker room with a smile brighter than the pink, yellow and white match ball that he cradled in his arm. That's what happens on a day of firsts.
Besler celebrated the birth of his first child, daughter Parker Rhea, by scoring his first international goal in the Americans' 6-0 win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
"It's a day that I'm always going to remember, and there's a couple different things that made it special," Besler said. "I'm glad I get to take this [ball] home, because this doesn't happen very often for me, and I'm going to make sure Parker's name goes on this ball, and we put in the nursery."
It was after training Thursday that Besler received a text message from his wife Amanda saying, "Call me ASAP." Besler said that the baby wasn't due for another two weeks, and due to travel conditions he knew there was about a 48-hour window where he would be stuck in St. Vincent and that window had closed shut.
"It would have been impossible to make it in time," he said. "That's why I decided to stay, I was just going to try and make the best of it."
Besler told U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann what was happening, and was getting hourly updates. Parker Rhea was born around 5 a.m. ET on Friday.
"It's just hard to explain how I was feeling this morning," he said. "A big part of me would have liked to have been at home, to witness it and to be there with my wife. But at the same time I was just so excited to play in the game."
And he soon informed Klinsmann of the news, and stated in no way did he want to take the rest of the day off. The adrenaline overdose that accompanies fatherhood had kicked in.
"I was ready to play because this was something I really wanted to do because it's already a special day," Besler said, "but I wanted to make it even more special and play in this special game."
Besler, a defender with a total of three professional goals to his name, probably would have settled for a clean sheet. But a free kick was cleared right to him in the box, and with the aplomb of a striker, he took the ball off his chest and lashed it into the Vincy Heat net.
"It's just one of those plays where you're pretty much in the right spot at the right time, but you can feel the ball coming to you," he said. "I think the ball got crossed in and it was a missed clearance. On that play, for whatever reason, I could just feel the ball gravitate to me at the back post, so I was ready for it."
But not the celebration. Given the infrequency with which he scores, Besler admitted that "the celebration part is definitely not my specialty." But he soon regrouped and did the rock-the-baby celebration with his teammates.
"It just came natural I guess," he said. "Once you become a dad it's just instinct to do that."
Besler added that mother and baby are doing fine, and while Klinsmann said that Besler would be heading back home, the defender's mind was such a blur from the past 24 hours that he didn't know what he was going to do.
"We had discussed that last night, depending on the situation," Besler said. "But our conversation this morning was, 'Hey, let's take care of business today, I'm ready to play and we'll talk after the game depending on what happens and what makes sense going forward.' We'll see."
And with that, Besler walked off toward the team bus, ball in hand. He had already given his daughter her first gift. The game ball was about to be the second.